Certain Charms
by ThereIsOnlyZuul
Summary: Akito has called upon Kyo for a private meeting. The Sohma family god is about to offer something the lowly cat could never have imagined... Rated M for language and sexual situations. ONE-SHOT.


My first on-shot featuring Akito and Kyo. Hopefully I get their dynamic right.

If you read and enjoy, please review!

Cheers!

* * *

Kyo hated being alone with Akito. He hated having the man's glassy grey eyes stare at him, judging him, and then there was that flicker of disgust that would flash across them whenever Kyo got anywhere near him: fast like lightning and just as painful.

Akito sat across from Kyo at a small table in his private chambers. His small hands were clasped in front of him, a plastic-like smile on his plastic-like face. "How are you today, dear Kyo?"

Akito claimed to love Kyo like he did all his zodiac animals: he, in fact, claimed to love him most of all.

But it was a lie.

A clearly visible one at that.

Kyo had managed to find friendship amongst the zodiac closest to his own age and (at the very least) tolerance from the older ones, but Akito hated him. Everyone saw it and yet the insulting facade was maintained. Not to spare Kyo's feelings at all. No... it was done to alienate him all the more from the people he was supposed to call his family. It made him the butt of joke. Someone to laugh at when his back was turned. Or worse, someone to pity while he faced them.

"What do you care?" He snapped back. He sat with his long legs crossed but he was tense and drummed his fingertips on the polished surface of the table.

Akito's eyes widened in mock surprise. "You shouldn't speak to me that way. But I'll forgive you. I know what a tough time you've been having recently."

The smirk that spread over Akito's insufferable face made Kyo want to raise his back and hiss like a cornered alley cat.

A servant entered the room before he could. She slid open the shoji door and bowed to Akito while bearing a tray with a tea set and plates of strawberry daifuku and many multi-coloured mochi. She placed the tray on the table that Kyo and Akito sat around and quickly moved the various objects from the tray to the table. Kyo reached immediately for one of the sweet, red bean paste daifuku and, much to his surprise, the servant flinched as his hand grazed hers.

Akito laughed gently as he reached forward for one of the small daifuku himself. "She's scared of you." He said in that deadpan way that he delivered all his words in. "Everyone here is. Who can blame them? They all know there's a monster under that mop of orange hair."

"All thanks to you, I'm fucking sure!" Kyo spat. He tossed the daifuku back onto the plate, his appetite gone.

The darkness in Akito, the anger and violence that he carried around in him, suddenly shadowed his face like a veil. His lips were pressed in a tight line and his eyes spoke of a malice that the Sohma family had all come to dread. The daikfuku that he'd taken was clenched in his fist and oozing through his tightly clenched fingers. The red bean paste that made up the inwards of the treat looked like blood seeping through his fingers.

But just as suddenly as that darkness came over Akito, it was gone again. Akito lifted his face, a smile spread across it. He unclenched his fist and wiped the daifuku cake off on a napkin that he then extended for the servant to take.

"Thank you Matsu. You may leave us now."

The girl, who'd paled when Kyo had touched her and then paled even more when she saw Akito nearly erupt, didn't need to be told twice. She turned on her heel and swiftly moved across the room, bowing quickly to Akito before rushing through the door. She closed the shoji paper door behind her, leaving Akito and Kyo once again alone.

"Why–"

Akito brought up his hand to stop Kyo from speaking. As much as Kyo hated having to hold his tongue, he did. Akito was head of the family and if he wanted silence he got it: no matter how pissed off Kyo was.

"You really shouldn't use the type of language you just did around your god," Akito said after a drawn out moment. He lowered his hand to pour himself a cup of tea. He poured it slowly, relishing the fact that Kyo could not–would not–speak until he had told him to do so. After bringing the small cup to his lips and taking a tentative sip of the steaming hot tea, Akito brought his grey eyes up to meet Kyo's sienna ones. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Bile rose in the back of Kyo's throat: bubbling and burning like concentrated anger. But there was nothing else he could say or do. He bowed his head and muttered his reply. "I'm sorry. Please forgive me."

Smug was the only way to describe the look that came over Akito's face. "You are forgiven, dear Kyo."

"Now will you tell me what you want?"

"I said it earlier, weren't you listening?" Akito snapped. "You're having a tough time right now, aren't you? I just wanted to have you over to see if I could help you."

"I'm not having a tough time." Kyo replied. Even if he was, he'd never acknowledge or admit that around Akito. He didn't need his cruel, selfish brand of help.

"Oh, but you are!" Akito laid both his hands on the table top, patting it in excitement, like one might do if they had some very good news to share. "School is almost up and you've yet to defeat sweet little Yuki. Your confinement is getting closer and closer and it seems there's not anything you can do to stop it. Must be so sad to continually mess up. But that's what happens when you're born the stupid cat. Isn't it Kyo?" Kyo said nothing. Akito slammed his hands on the table top, jostling everything atop it and making Kyo jump. "Answer your god!"

Kyo's anger pulsed through him, making him shake. But he dare not do anything to Akito. "Yes..." He replied slowly, drawing out the S in a hiss. That was the cat in him. At least partially.

"Yes what?" Akito asked mockingly, wanting to hear Kyo say it all.

"Yes that's what happens when you're born the stupid cat..."

Akito smiled, pleased at his cruelty. Not that he was done being cruel. Not by a long shot. "That's better. Doesn't it feel nice to admit to yourself who you really are? That can be a good first place to start in your unhappiness, Kyo. The next place to go, well... it'll have to be Tohru of course."

Kyo had only been half listening. He'd had the cruel family head spout much nastier things at him than getting him to call himself _the stupid cat_. He'd even heard about his confinement over and over from Akito: for years now. He'd known about it since his childhood but it was still brought up anytime the Sohma family head thought he was being disobedient and needed to be put back in line. None of this brutality was new, but as soon as Tohru's name was brought up... and from Akito at that...

"What about Tohru?" He asked menacingly, eyes narrowed and teeth bared.

"Well..." Akito ran his index finger over his lip, smirking at the anger that was growing in Kyo's eyes the longer he drew out this moment. "I know how you feel about Tohru. How much you love her. All my animals love her, don't they? But you do more than anyone else. Why is that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about..." He muttered between gritted teeth. He didn't want to provoke Akito given how violent and unpredictable he was. He could hurt Tohru–badly–and nobody in this family would bat a goddamn eye because it was their god doing it. How could you go against your god after all? But if Kyo could change the course of this conversation; if he could deny anything and everything about his feelings for Tohru and get Akito's focus on to something else... Hell, even if he had to put it back on himself... as long as Tohru was safe that's all that mattered.

Akito was not to be tricked though. He knew exactly what he was doing. This was not his every day cruelness: this he'd planned out.

"Oh, you do, Kyo. You know perfectly well what I'm talking about. You _love_ Tohru and I'll be damned if she doesn't love you back. She knows nothing can ever come from the two of you being together and she still stays by your side. She's even seen you as a monster and she stays by your side! That's dedication, it really, truly is."

"She's just a... friend..."

Akito stood slowly and moved to Kyo's side of the table. He put his slim fingers under Kyo's chin and gently turned his face upwards to his. "Liar. You want her to be more. I can see it in your eyes."

Kyo wrenched his face away but it was too late: Akito had seen what he wanted to see. He sunk to his knees beside him, sitting closer to Kyo than either was comfortable with, as Kyo feared Akito and Akito was disgusted by the cat.

"It must be so hard to live with her. Wanting to touch her, embrace her. But you can't. You'll never be able to be in a _loving_ relationship with her."

Kyo felt the blush that was spreading across his face. "Stop!"

Akito didn't.

"It's so hard for teenagers to control their urges as it is but as the cat of the zodiac! Though I suppose you could fuck her if you wanted. I guess you'll just have to hope she likes being on top!" Akito laughed at his crude statement. He laughed even harder when Kyo jumped up to move away from him. "Poor little pussycat; have I offended you? You act so tough all the time but when faced with anything slightly _distasteful_ you arch your back and run for the goddamn hills!"

"You should treat Tohru with respect!" Kyo spat back. He moved further away from Akito. He hated being alone with him on a good day and this was definitely not one of his good days.

Slinking away from the table, he went to the open doors that lead to a private inner garden that only Akito was allowed to enter. He leaned against the frame of the sliding door and gazed out into the small garden.

It was still raining.

Kyo hated the rain, being a cat, so of course a rainy day is the day Akito chose to torment him on.

Wind chimes twinkled from somewhere in the back of the garden. Koi fish came to the surface of the small pond, curious of the disturbance the raindrops were making. As he stood watching the colourful fish, completely transfixed, Akito came up behind him. The Sohma family head placed his hand gently on Kyo's shoulder.

"I won't ever respect Tohru," he replied in a hushed tone. "I won't respect anyone who would dare tease my poor, lovely animals. She came barging into our lives, enticing all my boys to... touch her... You can't be with her and yet she stays. It must be so hard for you not to touch her. She is very pretty... so very pretty..." Akito's hand drifted from Kyo's shoulder to the small of his back. He tensed up as Akito's lips brushed the back of his neck. "You'll never be with her. But you can be with me..."

Kyo jumped away like a startled cat: appropriate considering he was one. Had Akito just proposed they... be together? Intimately?

There were occasionally relationships within the zodiac considering how much time they all spent together and how the only people of the opposite sex that could embrace a cursed Sohma was another cursed Sohma, it was only natural that relationships formed. Hatsuharu had been with Isuzu and Hiro, as young as he was, had already declared his love for Kisa. They were all Sohmas in name but they were spread far enough apart genetically that it wasn't necessarily incest... but... Akito was different. Akito was God!

And a man.

"What?" He asked with a smirk as he took in the look on Kyo's face. "Not man enough for me?"

"Try the other way around!"

Akito threw back his head with a laugh. "You might be the stupid cat but it looks like you've got some sense in you in spite of that! Of course you're still wrong so I guess you're just the stupid cat after all."

"Wrong? Wrong about what?" Kyo was confused: beyond confused. What the hell was Akito going on about? Why had he been brought here? What was being purposed here and why was it being purposed to him?

"It's a closely guarded secret around here..." Akito mumbled as he began to untie his kimono's obi. He dropped it heedlessly to the floor when he was done. "A closely guarded secret that Ren has insisted everyone keep. I think I can let you in on it though. Considering how in just a few weeks you'll be confined... I'll visit you everyday Kyo. I'll even do other things for you..."

Kyo turned his back on Akito as he slipped his hands inside his kimono. He heard the fabric fall to the floor and Akito's light footsteps as he stepped closer to Kyo.

Akito had clearly gone crazy and Kyo really didn't want anything to do with what was about to happen.

Although what happened next was definitely _not_ what he expected...

"Turn to face me, cat. Face your god."

Kyo turned slowly, his eyes downcast.

"Look at me."

Kyo took a deep breath to steady his shaking form. He didn't want to be here, doing this, with this psychopath.

"Look at me or I'll claw Tohru's pretty brown eyes out while you watch!"

That was the last thing Kyo wanted: Akito's vicious attention on poor, defenceless Tohru. With no other way to protect Tohru than to keep her out of Akito's way, Kyo's eyes jumped up to meet his. But their eyes only met for a second. Kyo found something else much more astounding to focus on.

Akito stood naked before him and he... was a she. She had small breasts and slim hips and a small patch of dark hair between her legs that was definitely not concealing any male anatomy.

Kyo sputtered, searching his mind for anything at all to say to the woman that he'd always believed to be a man. "You're..."

"A woman."

"But you were..."

"Raised a man." Akito tucked a strand of her black hair behind her ear. "Being born into the Sohma family has its charms, doesn't it?"

Kyo felt yet another blush spreading across his face. He looked away again, unable to keep looking unabashedly at the naked woman that stood before him. Not only a naked woman but the Sohma family head and his reincarnated god!

"This isn't right..." He muttered with a shake of his head.

"But it is, dear cat. You can't embrace anyone of the opposite sex outside of the Sohma family. You'll never have Tohru–or any woman–in the way I'm offering myself to you."

Kyo couldn't breathe: it had gotten so fucking hot in this room! His head spun, his knees felt weak, he felt like he could be sick to his stomach. Through all this though, he did manage to weakly stammer a question: "Why me?"

Akito shrugged her pale shoulders. If she was going to be honest–which she wasn't with the cat–she didn't know herself why she was offering up her body like she was. Kyo was _the cat_ : the left out animal in the zodiac. The animal that was there to make the others feel better that, yes, they were cursed, but at least they weren't the cat.

She was disgusted by the cat and the monster that she knew lurked just underneath those little beads he wore on his wrist, but, at the same time, Kyo did hold certain charms. He was handsome and aggressive and so easily toyed with. And even though she knew she'd have to soak in scalding hot bath water after touching the loathsome cat... well, didn't that just make the thought of this affair with him that much more exciting?

"Don't believe yourself special, cat. There _have_ been others. Shigure has always had his eye on me and I do love when Kureno comes to visit me in the night... He's been doing it for years. He's really quite deft at it..."Akito bit her lip with a smile. "Who would think that a scatter-brained bird could be good in bed!"

"Akito, please..."

"Please what?" She asked as she stepped even closer. She was so close that Kyo could feel the heat coming off her skin. She looked up at him through her dark eyelashes. His breath caught in his throat but his head stopped spinning and his stomach settled.

She _was_ beautiful...

"Touch me."

Kyo reached his hand out, tentatively, afraid that she'd flinch or jump back with a laugh because this was all just some sick joke.

She seemed to read his mind. "I won't bite."

Kyo's fingertips touched the smooth skin of Akito's hip and she didn't flinch. He touched her more firmly and she didn't jump away. He ran his fever-hot fingertips over her stomach... up to the soft curve of her breasts... his hand covered her small breast, his palm covering her nipple, his fingers splayed out of the soft tissue...

Akito closed her eyes with a moan and let her head loll back. "The cat has always been the defiler..."

"No!" Kyo pulled back his hand like he'd been bitten. Akito stared at him in shock. "No! I don't want this–"

Akito slapped Kyo across the face. "Don't lie–of course you do!" She screamed. "Now be with me!"

"Why?" Kyo screamed back.

"Because I've commanded it, that's why!" Akito yelled in a fury. "Why shouldn't you want to be with me–look at me!" She gestured for Kyo to look over her body. "I'm offering my godly body to you! You can't have this with Tohru, so have it with me!"

"You could never give me what I want from Tohru because I don't want only her body."

Akito stepped back from Kyo, aghast at the notion that there was someone who could want anything more from a woman than just her body. Her mother Ren had been teaching her the worthlessness of women ever since she'd been old enough to understand it and the lessons had stuck steadfast.

"What do you want from Tohru?" She asked.

"The same thing all _your_ animals want from Tohru," Kyo spat back. "They want genuine love, not someone so damn scared to lose control that they go to these lengths!"

Akito pulled back her hand to slap him again but Kyo caught her tiny wrist and restrained her before she could. She couldn't overpower him. There was nothing left to do but spit curses at him. "You're pathetic..." She hissed at Kyo, her grey eyes wild as she searched his face. What was she looking for? Was she looking to see if her words were weakening him? It was the last defence she had left after all. "You're just absolutely fucking pathetic."

"You should look at yourself before passing any judgement on me."

Akito blinked once, twice, and then seemed to remember that she was naked. She backed away from Kyo's stony countenance and scrambled to gather up her kimono from the ground; she was suddenly very ashamed of her nudity.

"Why have you done this, Akito?" Kyo muttered.

"Done what?" She snapped as she tried and failed to set her obi properly.

"Tried to do this... with me. Why?"

The laughed that burst forth from Akito made Kyo want to cover his ears. It was manic and desperate. "Do you know the story of Kazuma's grandfather?"

"He was the previous cat." Kyo answered immediately. Kazuma was his adoptive father and he had often heard the story of how Kazuma's grandfather was the cat before Kyo. "Why bring him up?"

"You are just so stupid! This has to do with your question!" Akito yelled, her eyes wild and her body tense. "Did you know that the woman that was his companion, that lived with him and even birthed his children did it out of pity? Pity! Now, knowing all this, why do you think that _I_ would offer myself to _you_ in the way that I just did?"

" _You_ pity _me_?" Kyo said with a disbelieving scoff.

"You say that like it's the most unbelievable thing you've ever heard!"

Kyo let a single laugh escape his lips. This was a side of Akito that Kyo had never seen before and was sure he'd never see again. Standing before him was not the sickly but vicious patriarch that ruled the Sohmas, but a petite, mostly delusional matriarch that wished she was anything but. She'd been raised in a world where she was the centre of it. Everything she had–including love–had been handed to her. She'd never be able to earn it herself should she lose what she had now.

This is why Tohru terrified her so much. She had come in and so easily won over the Sohmas. Akito was losing control and she was so desperate to keep it she had sunk so low as to offer herself up to the cat.

He saw it all so clearly now.

He wasn't the unluckiest cursed Sohma...

Akito was.

"Get out!" Akito screamed. She was clearly pissed off at the response her little piece of Sohma family gossip had gotten out of Kyo. "I'm done explaining myself to you! Get the fuck out of here!"

"Gladly." Kyo remarked coolly as he turned to leave.

"Tohru will never be with you!" Akito said again, hoping to hurt Kyo just once more before he left.

"No, she probably won't be," he said as he grabbed a handful of the mochi cakes that had sat untouched on the table.

"And now you're confinement will be even worse!"

"You're wrong about that," Kyo said with a smirk. "It's not gonna be so bad now that I've got this to hold over your head. You, the mighty god, threw yourself at the lowly cat only to be turned down. It's gonna be such a charming story to spread around the main house, don't you think?"

Akito's mouth dropped open as she struggled to find something to say. Kyo didn't give her the chance. He popped a mochi cake into his mouth before letting himself out.


End file.
